Today’s deal breathes new life into the phrase “Freaky Friday.”
Little did I know, after partner passed over two hearts, that I would subsequently be carried to five diamonds. Perhaps partner should have bid it directly over two hearts in an attempt to cut out the inevitable spade bidding.
West doubled five diamonds and led the spade ace. I ruffed in dummy and led the club queen to try to open my communications. I wanted to ruff more spades in dummy, so drawing trumps was not on the menu. West won the first club trick (ducking might have worked better) and returned the suit. I took that in dummy and then crossed to the club king before leading my heart, again facilitating communications. West won that with the heart ace and continued spades, ruffed in dummy. I could now ruff all of my spades, but I would still be left with a trump loser. However, when I led the winning heart king from dummy, East made the mistake of ruffing in with his apparently worthless trumps. I overruffed, ruffed a spade, ruffed a heart and laid down the diamond ace. When the king dropped, I was home and dry.
Had East discarded on the heart king, I would have had to lose a trick to the diamond nine, but West also played a part. He could imagine my plan to ruff spades, so he should have shifted to his singleton diamond king when in on the club ace. If he subsequently played low on the first heart, allowing East to ruff and return a trump, the contract would be down two tricks.